Texas right-hander Nathan Eovaldi on Tuesday night will make his third start since missing almost a month with right triceps tightness when the Rangers play the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif.
Texas will try to bounce back from a 6-5 walk-off loss to the Angels on Monday.
Eovaldi (5-3, 1.75 ERA) was on the injured list from May 29 until June 27. He never made a rehab start, instead throwing several live batting practice sessions before returning to the active roster.
Eovaldi threw just 45 pitches in his return in a 7-6, 12-inning loss to Seattle on June 27, allowing three runs on five hits over three innings with two walks and two strikeouts. He followed that by giving up just two hits over five innings in a 6-0 win over Baltimore on Wednesday, walking one and striking out five.
Eovaldi left after throwing just 72 pitches, 50 for strikes, while lowering his ERA to 1.75 over 77 1/3 innings. That ranks as the second-lowest ERA through a pitcher’s first 14 starts of a season in Washington/Texas history (since 1961). Rick Honeycutt is the leader with a 1.49 ERA in 1983.
“I felt good,” Eovaldi said. “I felt strong toward the end. I made a few mechanical adjustments from the last outing … and I felt like they helped out a lot. The first game back, I just felt out like I was out of sync with my mechanics. I had a little more wiggle room today, and being able to go out there and go a little deeper was because my mechanics were on point.”
Eovaldi is 5-3 with a 3.47 ERA in 14 career appearances (12 starts) against the Angels, including 4-2 with a 2.82 ERA in seven starts in Anaheim. The two-time All-Star won his last start of the 2024 season there on Sept. 29, allowing four hits while striking out five over seven innings in an 8-0 victory.
Los Angeles will counter on Tuesday with right-hander Jose Soriano (6-5, 3.72 ERA), who comes in off an impressive 5-1 victory on the road against the Atlanta Braves on Thursday. Soriano allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven over seven shutout innings.
Soriano is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA in four career appearances (two starts) against Texas.
The Angels won the opener of the four-game series on Monday night in walk-off fashion as Nolan Schanuel drove in Luis Rengifo with a bases-loaded walk off reliever Hoby Milner.
Schanuel, who nearly won the game on the first pitch of the at-bat when he hit a line drive that landed just a couple of feet foul down the right field line, battled back from an 0-2 count and took a 3-2 sinker that landed well wide of the plate to cap his second career walk-off appearance. He also had a walk-off single on June 10 in a 2-1, 10-inning victory over the Athletics.
It was the fifth walk-off win of the season for the Angels, who snapped a three-game losing streak — all one-run losses to red-hot Toronto.
“To get a win like this, on the first day back of the series, it’s awesome,” Schanuel said.